At the end of last week every news site in the world had the same headline announcing the passing of Steve Jobs.

What a shocker. It was only a few weeks back on 9 September that the American magazine iPhone Life staged the Dress Like Steve Jobs Day on Facebook as a tribute to him after he announced his retirement. They asked us to post photos and videos telling our own personal story of our relationship with Apple and Steve Jobs.

This was my video
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Tikjw4FJ4]

Since that unwelcome announcement a few days ago I can’t stop thinking about him. Why is that?

I decided to visit YouTube and watch some docos on him. I discovered what an incredible rise, apparent fall and rise he had in his career. No wonder his body suffered as many of ours would in the same circumstances.

The speech he made for the Stanford Commencement Address in 2005 sums him up so perfectly though.

Here’s the essence of the speech.

1) Your work is going to fill a large part of your life. The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work and, the only way to do great work is to love what you do. Take a look at your career and life right now. Are you doing “great work”? Is it the best standard you can possibly attain or are you doing the bare minimum? Worse than that, are you beating yourself up because you can’t understand why you’re only doing the bare minimum? If so, I feel a coaching conversation coming on between you and me!

2) You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking back. This is where your intuition kicks in. Go where your heart is. If something feels like the right thing to do, even though it doesn’t appear to have any connection with where you’re trying to go, just do it and in hindsight you’ll understand the significance of it. You’ll gain a skill you need further down the road. You’ll meet someone who points you to where you need to go, or a bundle of these unconnected skills will draw together to give you a unique perspective which makes you stand out.

3) Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. Despite what looks to be terrible loss or misfortune, keep doing what you love and you will get to where you want to be. This is where faith in yourself is crucial. What appears to be obstacles are often the only way of forcing you to let go of the old and make room for the new.

4) Keep looking, don’t settle… Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. You may think the path is long in finding what it is you really want, but stopping to settle for less than the perfect solution is going to lead to a lifetime of low self worth, dissatisfaction and unhappiness. The answer is there. Believe me. You can find it.

5) Your time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Who do you need to impress in your life? Who do you want to feel happy with what you do? Caring too much about what others think of you can distort the directions your intuition gives you.

All these points are the sorts of things I deal with alongside my clients on a day to day basis.
– Finding the your true calling.
– Moving on from suffering Burnout.
– Helping you find faith in yourself
– and attaining your Great Work.

Life and Business Coaching is a specialty service designed to help you find the answers to these problems. Visit my coaching site if you want to talk to me about it.
http://www.kitegirlcoach.com/services/workaholic-personal-coaching-faqs.html

The story of death in Steve Job’s speech is deep to watch knowing what we know now. There are times when he wipes his chin during topics that are deeply unsavory to him, even when he’s apparently cracking jokes about them, but the speech is heartfelt and wise.

He practiced what he preached. He was incredibly brave and had enormous faith in his own intuition. He did his very best and certainly achieved his “great work”.

RIP Steve, you’ve earned it.

Do you have a comment? Share it with me on the blog here below.

Cheers

Kitegirl, Annabelle Drumm
Feet on the ground for creative high flyers.
www.kitegirlcoach.com

This was the full speech if you have a spare 15 minutes to watch
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rXnChrXCsyM]